“I was supposed to be there,” says Isabella Saccon, a young Italian teacher living in Munich “I didn’t go to the demonstration because it was my birthday.” “The city is shocked by what happened” she underlines a tense atmosphere, with ambulances and sirens going off all morning.
A car drove into a crowd of people at a Ver.di union manifestation held in Munich on Thursday 13 February. Thirty people were injured, including children, and two of them still be at the hospital in critical condition. The fact happened in Seidelstrasse, a street close to the train station and the center of the city. “Many of the injuries are workers of Stadtwerke München and members of the Ver.di union” said the energy company.
The white car, driven by a 24-year-old Afghan man, sped into the crowd at the end of the manifestation, bypassing police cars and crashing into the participants. The driver arrived in Germany in 2016 seeking asylum, but his application was rejected. He was granted a temporary residence permit and work permit. According to the newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, the man was already known to police for theft and drug crimes.
Reactions and Investigation
Emergency services and authorities quickly arrived at the scene of the incident. Bavarian President and CSU leader Markus Söder spoke about an “attack” stressing that “we can not go on with those attacks, something has to change”. Present on the scene also Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter, who expressed his sorrow for the incident and hoped for the injured to recover: “Today is a black day for Munich”. Police Chief Thomas Hampel explained that a witness-point was prepared in the Löwenbräukeller and that the police website of Munich opened a “Medien-Upload Portal” where people could upload video and photos to describe the incident.
The investigation has been handed over to the Bavarian Center for Extremism and Terrorism, which has not yet found any connection to the Security Conference scheduled in Munich from February 14th to 16th.
Solidarity and Condemnation
“We condemn every act of violence. There is no space for it in our society” declared the Munich Forum of Islam which strongly condemned the act, expressing their sympathy to the victims and their families.
In the evening more than 5000 people reached Odeonsplatz in a spontaneous solidarity demo for the victims and to show opposition to the exploitation of the tragedy.
